Reliëf van Maria met Christus en een detail van de San Marco in Venetië before 1885

This is a black and white print by Carl Heinrich Jacobi, depicting a relief of Maria with Christ, and a detail of the San Marco in Venice. Jacobi was active in the mid-19th century, a time when the proliferation of printed images began to transform how art and culture were disseminated. In this print, we see a juxtaposition of the sacred and the architectural. The tender, intimate portrayal of Mary and Jesus contrasts with the imposing, public architecture of San Marco. This tension invites us to consider the relationship between the personal and the institutional. The artist seems to be asking, how do these spheres of life – faith and civic identity – interact and influence one another? What does it mean to be faithful, and to what extent is that an intimate choice versus a public performance? Ultimately, this print captures a moment in time when artists began grappling with new ways of seeing, reproducing, and understanding the world around them, inviting us to contemplate the interplay between individual belief and collective identity.